5 For Thank Goodness it's Finally Friday

What a long week! I guess it felt so long because it was the first (well.. besides a half day PLC for me) full week of school since before winter break. Woof. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs.

(1)

We do a 6-day rotation. Every day 6, we are suppose to do a lesson, activity, discussion all geared towards preventing bullying. This week, I had nothing prepared, but my knight in shining armor (aka- my teammate Kate) sent me some quick slides with some quotes all about the "think before you speak" idea. She was going to read a book; I didn't have the book, so I quickly remembered my latest Olweus Lead training meeting where I wrote down many websites to use and found some simple and short videos. We started the lesson by discussing some of the quotes that Kate had in her slides and what they meant. We then watched the videos, and every time someone said unkind things, they would crinkle their heart (there was 1 heart for every 2-3 kids- they took turns). We then looked at our hearts at the end. I told them to try to get them smooth again. Of course, they couldn't. We tied it back to a few of our quotes about how our words are powerful and we can't take them back. I then had a parent volunteer write some of the quotes onto the hearts and I created this display just in time for conferences next week!

Click on the picture below to go to the website that has a ton of short video clips that you can use in your classrooms as well! For 3rd grade, I used the cartoon videos. They start on the third page.

(2)

We've been celebrating I Love to Read Month. This week, one day, students got to bring a stuffed animal to have them as their "reading buddies." I was shocked at how well the students did with having their stuffed animals. They still did great work and it was so cute to see them snuggle with them. Some animals even were very helpful, as you see in one picture- the student has his bear holding his writing utensils for him. Too cute.

(3)

Line designs are almost done! They have taken the entire trimester. With all the cold days, and sub days (I didn't want the sub leading this project), and only having art every 4 days, they took a while. However, I'm very proud with how this first art unit went... it was my first time teaching art! Here, students met while they were about 3/4 of the way done to confer with someone else. They switched designs and examined each others.

Then, they gave each other feedback and how to "balance" their project... use more detailed textures vs. simple textures; stay in the lines better, smooth out their values, etc. I was very impressed with the feedback they gave each other.

After they met, they went back to continue working on their designs. I am making this project be done before conferences on Tuesday. I am also trying to squeeze in a little writing prompt with it explaining the process.

Here are students back to work on their line designs.

Checkerboards were a very popular value to incorporate.

The planning pages were an extremely helpful reference for students throughout this project.

(4)

As I've said, conferences are next week. We started to decorate our folders. My other teammate, Scott, had the idea to brainstorm all the things we've learned this trimester to decorate our folders with. It was great to have a focus. I told them they could draw pictures representing their learning, or pictures of them learning, or even pictures of me teaching them. Many saw that last one as a challenge. Check out some of their drawings of me below:

Some noticings:

1) Bad day to wear a striped shirt. I look like Waldo.

2) My kids certainly know my love for my mustard yellow knit hat.

3) My kids also know my love for wearing scarves all the time.

(5)

On a much more serious note, we had a lock down this week. No, not a drill, an actual lock down. During our morning arrival. Image the chaos. It was more of a precautionary step than anything else, but the initial shock of hearing the announcement over the intercom during such a busy part of the day was a rough way to start the day. I'm just glad none of our students were in real danger, but it was a good reality of how to handle something like that.